Another cleanup worker blinded — Doctor: “I am most certain that the toxins that are in his blood attacked his optic nerves”

... Chad said he made almost $2,600 per day working as the captain of a 35-foot boat in Bay Jimmy, a job that he says cost him his eyesight.

Today, Chad is blind in his right eye and severely impaired in his left. His grandchildren, 8 and 10 years old, escort him around the house "like a dog." Without his wife around, he can't even jot down a phone number. ...

Chad's vulnerability was tangible, realized each day when the infested water would splash onto his flesh, onto his cheek where a half-faced respirator should have rested. Never mind the airborne contaminants, the intangible threat all coastal residents face. This was "continuous, forever" oil-on-face, Chad says.

"When we came in with the boats, we were orange," he said. "We were orange. Literally, orange and it didn't wash off because this stuff was going in our pores, our eyes, ears, mouth...

"Well, now we have a doctor who wrote it up in plain English, 'I am most certain that the toxins that are in his blood attacked his optic nerves and made him go blind, and these toxins are still in his body, affecting his kidneys, his liver, his brain...,'" Chad said before he digressed and recalled a recent bout with dizziness.